Genetic Insights May Explain Development of Eye Cancer

You know how genes affect the characteristics of the body, right? Well, eye retinas are no different. Genes also determine the formation of retinas and this is the basis of investigators in finding a possible cure for eye cancer. At the research center of Saint Jude Children's Hospital, researchers are working on information to prevent a potentially deadly eye cancer called retinoblastoma from occuring. Retinoblastoma is one prevalent cancer disease in infants after leukemia and neuroblastoma (nerve cancer). Cancer spreads outside the eye and is among the deadliest childhood cancers, with an average survival rate of less than 10 percent.

The cancer study and all that transpired are a bit too technical, but apparently, the researchers found that humans are more susceptible to developing retinoblastoma than mice, because mice can compensate for loss of a gene critical to normal retinal development while humans cannot. They discovered that during retinal development in mice, three genes that belong to the Rb gene family are expressed at different times. This basically explains why humans are susceptible to retinoblastoma.

Since the eye is visible to researchers studying retinoblastoma, it's possible to watch a tumor grow from a single cell. This could tell which type of cell in the developing eye causes this cancer. Good thinking, eh? Surely, based on this discovery, the proper treatment or retinoblastoma drug would just be right around the corner.